Show HOW SHE BECAME OUR MARY Americas Famous Actress Received 19 the Appellation In Providence John R Rogers who is the manager of The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown which goes to the Olympia theatre tomorrow night was in charge of the advance business arrangements for Mary Anderson when the famous actress was unknown I notice he said yesterday that In her book of memories Miss Anderson Ander-son does not tell one thing that was important in her career and that brought her closely into the sympathies S S sympa-thies and the favor of the people of this country She does not tell how she came to be known a Our MarA S Mar-A knows when Mary Anderson S An-derson first went on the stage while the press praised her and the public C admired her the receipts at her performances per-formances were vszy small as a gen S eral thing paper was greater than money I was engaged by the Jate John W Norton to travel in advance and make all prellminry business arrangements arrange-ments We had a hard time of it playing play-ing across the country When I reached Providence R I there was so little money in the treasury that it meant success right then and there or a complete smashup This fact forced me to resort to acton ac-ton suggestive of nothing so much as that of the drowning man grasping at a straw There were few things I did not do I called on the editors of the newspapers appealed to their generosity gener-osity and succeeded in every case but one in securing excellent articles booming boom-ing the coming performance Otis R Pickett then managing editor of the Morning Herald which has been defunct these many years was noted for refusing to publish anything any-thing about any stage person whom he had not seen I the press of the world said an actor was good i made not the slightest difference to Picket I had heard of this trait of his and so when I called I was not surprised to be informed curtly that it was useless use-less for me to ask for preliminary notices no-tices ticesI I told him I did not seek advertising adver-tising but had called for the purpose of preventing him from printing a story about my star He asked for an explanation explanaton There is a story going around among gossips and scandal mongers I I said to the effect that Miss Ander sons family is in financial distress and that she has come to the rescue I ask you as a favor if any person in Providence starts the story around here that Our Mary is i on the stage playacting to support her widowed moiSier sisters and brothers that you will promise me to keep it out of print as Our Mary appears at the onera house next Monday night in a play entitled Ingomar I left purposely not waiting for an answer To the surprise of everybody who knew the policy of the Herald the whole history of Miss Anderson and her family was published in the paper the next morning Private matters mat-ters were set forth at length and thE paper spoke of the star as Our Mary just as I had done to the editor the day before It took the editor many months to square himself with various of his brethren throughout the country and with each article of comment the words Our Mary were used in connection con-nection with Miss Anderson They have been her appellation ever since both in Europe and America We took in 5117 in our week in Providence That was the first time Miss Anderson as an actress ever made money From that time to the end of her stage career she never had a losing week |